Building the Barn
Title: This is Amish Country p2 Players: '''Heather O'Leary, Elizabeth Maxwell, Michael Donovan, and Martin Grace '''Location: Maxwell Ranch Scene: More of Martin Grace's First Day on the Ranch, and the Barn Raising LOG Begins Martin Grace nods. Takes another bite, himself. "So, what's the final project going to end up looking like? Are there actual plans, or are we making this stuff up as we go along?" Elizabeth Maxwell hmms a little bit and raises her eyebrows. "I think there are actual plans somewhere, we're kinda modifying them along the way depending on what we're going to need, though." Heather O'Leary steps back out of the house, after an 'emergency'. She motions to a set of plans, "Oh, they are over there somewhere… I think. Unless Tyler ate em." Michael Donovan looks over to the three of you. "I could use those," he interjects, "Unless either one of you ladies wants to take back the supervisory reins and I can get back to doing the grunt work." Heather O'Leary glances over at the group of workers, "Hey idiots! You are supposed to nail the Crossbeams to the Floor, not the Walls!" She sighs, and mutters softly, "Leave for 5 minutes, and the world falls asleep… I swear!" Martin Grace says, "Yeah, well, given how many cooks we now have in the kitchen, maybe I should get while the getting is good, and see who's around." Another bite of sandwich. "Y'all enjoy your afternoon of labor." Heather O'Leary nods to Martin, glaring at the workers. Martin Grace meanders towards the house, therefore. Michael Donovan scowls at the workers as well. "Did I -say- to do that?" he asks somewhat snarkily. "Who told you to do that?" Say what you will about Mike Donovan, but even -he- knows where a frickin' crossbeam goes. Elizabeth Maxwell glances around at the construction, hmming a little bit and nodding to Heather with a smile. "hmm. It's not entirely unfixable… don't worry too much." she glances around at it, and hmms a bit. Heather O'Leary nods slightly, "I just wish people were paying better attention, now they have to go back and fix that mistake." A Down-looking Kyle blushes furiously, as he is embarrassed to have screwed up. He leads the workers in ripping out the crossbeams, and starts to replace them, where they are supposed to go. Heather looks at Liz, "Well, we do have a couple decisions to make on the barn still… exterior of Wood, overlayed with Siding, or we go the route of Brick, which gives better structure…" Elizabeth Maxwell smiles, and takes Heather's hand gently. "It'll be all right. Don't worry about it." she smiles then. "I'd better get back working, though…" she hmms at the question. "Brick over steel reinforced concrete would be the best, but…" Michael Donovan mutters to himself softly enough to suggest that the words being muttered are those he'd rather not share with the ladies even though one of them is a Marine and the other is maturing at an alarming rate. After all, he's not totally uncouth, unlike Tyler. Heather O'Leary nods, "Most expensive… I was thinking we could use Brick, cover it with Siding, and it would give us the appearance of a normal barn, and the strength of Brick…" She shrugs, and looks at Mike, "The plans are under those nail boxes… Shouldn't be too hard to read, I made sure Tyler didn't spill any coffee on them, when he looked at them earlier." Elizabeth Maxwell nods a little bit and hmms. "That should work, then." she smiles again. "It should be all right. I'm hoping it won't be too hard to put up, either, that way." Heather O'Leary shakes her head, "Nah, Kyle used to lay Bricks before the war, as his profession, so at least there, we have an expert to supervise…" She pauses, "And Siding isn't too difficult to put up, even over brick." Michael Donovan takes a deep cleansing breath and then retrieves the plans from the location indicated. Taking a long look over them to make sure that he doesn't misdirect people, he then begins to run herd over the workforce again while the two of you discuss further plans. Elizabeth Maxwell smiles a little and nods. "that's even better. I'm glad to hear that." she watches over the construction for the moment. "Things should go well, then." Heather O'Leary nods, "Of course, we are the only ones with Electrical experience, and I heard how the Basement Electrical re-wiring went…" She teases Liz. Elizabeth Maxwell laughs a little and shrugs. "That's not exactly normal electrical wiring, though, either. That's trying to wire together two systems that were quite certainly not meant to be put together." Heather O'Leary chuckles again, "Aye, but weren't we thinking of using the same thing here? See if we can't get ourselves off Local Power, as much as possible… I don't know about you, but I'd hate to have to use most of Parrish's paycheck from Bates, to cover the Electric Bill…" Elizabeth Maxwell raises her eyebrows then and smiles a bit more. "Well, it'll be easier, both the second time, and when its being wired together from the start, instead of spliced into an existing system, anyway." Michael Donovan puts down the plans for a moment and picks up some boards, always having been a more "hands-on" kind of leader (and he probably always will be). Heather O'Leary nods, and chuckles, watching Mike 'supervise'. Elizabeth Maxwell settles back a little as Mike takes up doing it, and just rests for a moment, watching it go up. Heather O'Leary closes her eyes and leans back against the house, "Suppose we hard wired the Shuttle Power plant into the inflow for both the house, and than ran a line or five to the new barn…" She pauses, looking thoughtful, "We could than, use about the same amount of power as before, and not have it look odd? Just have to make sure we don't ever reverse the flow, or we could knock out power for the whole valley…" Michael Donovan works the nailgun at appropriate intervals (as mandated by the blueprint). Despite other people's misgivings about his accuracy with said device, not a single nail finds its way into his skull. So there. Elizabeth Maxwell hmms a little. "I could probably run a line over from the current setup, to power the barn, if I needed to. It'd just be a little ditch to dig and cover, to put the wiring underground." Heather O'Leary nods slightly, "Nothing too bad. I've already got Carpenter hands, what is ditch-diggers hands on top of it?" She chuckles, "Actually, I think we'll have Ham dig the ditch." Log Ends Category:Log Category:RATED-PG